The present disclosure relates generally to information handling systems, and more particularly to master switch election.
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option is an information handling system (IHS). An IHS generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements may vary between different applications, IHSs may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in IHSs allow for IHSs to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, IHSs may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Additionally, some embodiments of information handling systems include non-transient, tangible machine-readable media that include executable code that when run by one or more processors, may cause the one or more processors to perform the steps of methods described herein. Some common forms of machine readable media include, for example, floppy disk, flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, any other magnetic medium, CD-ROM, any other optical medium, punch cards, paper tape, any other physical medium with patterns of holes, RAM, PROM, EPROM, FLASH-EPROM, any other memory chip or cartridge, and/or any other medium from which a processor or computer is adapted to read.
Computer networks form the interconnection fabric that enables reliable and rapid communications between computer systems and data processors that are in both close proximity to each other and at distant locations. These networks create a vast spider web of intranets and internets for handling all types of communication and information. Making all of this possible is a vast array of network switching products that make forwarding decisions in order to deliver packets of information from a source system or first network node to a destination system or second network node. Due to the size, complexity, and dynamic nature of these networks, sophisticated network switching products are often used to continuously make forwarding decisions and to update forwarding information as network configurations change. To provide redundancy and/or support scalability in the network, two or more network switching products in a network may cooperate to act as a single network switching entity. In some examples, two or more network switching products may be configured as a stacked network switching product, where the stacked network switching products have characteristics of a single network switching product, but have the port capacity of the sum of the port capacities of each of the stacked network switching products. In many implementations, one of the stacked network switching products is elected as the master for the stack and then typically assumes greater management responsibility for the entire stack. For example, the master switch may become responsible for handling management traffic for the entire stack. Several approaches for electing the master switch have been developed over the years, but they don't always do the best job of selecting the master switch from among the stacked network switching products in the stack.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide improved methods and systems for electing a master switch for a stack of network switching products.